Hamilton beats Vettel to pole in Bahrain

World Champion Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth successive pole position as he swept to top spot during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton posted a time of 1:32.571 as he claimed his first pole position at the track, four-tenths of a second clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, to continue his 100% record in qualifying this season.

Nico Rosberg was third fastest for Mercedes, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, as neither driver was able to match the efforts of their respective team-mates.

Williams will line-up on the third row of the grid, with Valtteri Bottas in front of team-mate Felipe Massa.

Daniel Ricciardo claimed seventh place for Red Bull while Nico Hülkenberg made it through to Q3 in the Force India and ended in eighth.

Sergio Pérez narrowly missed out on making it two Force India cars in the top 10 as he placed 11th, while Felipe Nasr beat Sauber team-mate Felipe Nasr to 12th position.

Fernando Alonso became the first McLaren driver to make it out of Q1 this season and he ended in 14th place, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen.

Pastor Maldonado fell at the first hurdle, with Lotus informing the Venezuelan that an engine problem was to blame for his lap time.

Daniil Kvyat’s difficult start to 2015 continued as he made a mistake at Turn 2 on his way to a lowly 17th for Red Bull, faster than only the Manor Marussia drivers, with Will Stevens once again outpacing team-mate Roberto Merhi.

McLaren’s Jenson Button will start from the back of the grid after he stopped on circuit for the third time this weekend and was unable to post a lap time.